Alaffia meaning: peace, health, wellbeing
Since its creation in 2003, fair trade African skincare company Alaffia has been actively reducing poverty across one of the poorest regions in the world. We take a closer look at how the Togolese brand is redefining the natural products industry in Africa, the United States and beyond.
What is Alaffia?
Alaffia’s story began in Kaboli, West Africa when Togo native Olowo-n’djo Tchala met and fell in love with US Peace Corps Volunteer, Prairie Rose Hyde. Moved by a ‘shared calling to do right in the world’, the couple created Alaffia skincare – a social enterprise dedicated to ‘cultivating beauty, equality and empowerment’ across Africa and the world. Their aim was clear: to empower African women through the fair trade of Togo’s indigenous raw materials. Today, the brand’s community-based projects have transformed the lives of over 14,000 women and their families throughout West Africa.
The secret to their success lies in Alaffia’s Togo-based, fair trade women’s cooperatives. Using traditional methods, the women in these collectives handcraft indigenous raw materials known for their extraordinary skincare benefits, including shea butter, coconut oil and African Black Soap. These unrefined ingredients are sent to the Alaffia headquarters in Olympia, Washington, to be made into safe, efficacious and organic body care products. Crucially, the proceeds from sales are then channelled back into the co-op communities, where they are used to fund empowerment projects, gender equality initiatives, education and sustainable healthcare.
For many of the women in these collectives, the opportunities Alaffia skincare provides are life-changing. The company offers a steady income, safe working conditions and fair pay – basic needs that can be hard to come by in the poorest region of Africa. In extreme cases, Togolese women can fall prey to the sex trade, forced by poverty to sell their bodies to provide for themselves and their children. Alaffia’s West African collectives offer a dignified and safe environment for these women, where they can learn to make their own living, earn a fair wage and rise up out of poverty. This vital work was recognised in 2018 when Alaffia skincare received the official US State Department Award for Corporate Excellence in Women’s Economic Empowerment.
Beyond Fair Trade
A company born of a desire to create positive change, Alaffia gives back to its communities in a way that goes far beyond fair trade. Here are just some of the ways the Alaffia’s empowerment projects have a real-life impact on the lives of Togolese families.
Safe Births
Every year, 160,000 Sub-Saharan African women die from complications in pregnancy and childbirth. Poor infrastructure, extreme poverty and a lack of safe birth spaces are denying Togolese women access to crucial healthcare and information. As well as being tragic in itself, this loss of life perpetuates the cycle of poverty in these communities. Left without maternal support, surviving children are much more likely to drop out of school – significantly reducing their chances of finding viable employment.
Alaffia’s Maternal Health Project works with the Togolese Health Clinic system to provide women with life-saving training and healthcare. In addition to funding comprehensive pre- and postnatal care, the scheme educates expectant mothers in nutrition, self-care, hygiene and birth spacing. With the help of community midwives, the project also raises awareness of the life-threatening health issues arising from Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), a major contributor to maternal deaths in West Africa. Since its creation in 2006, Alaffia’s Maternal Health Project has funded an incredible 5,597 safe births across Togo.
Alaffia is built on a philosophy of fair trade defined by paying a fair local price or wage, offering equal employment opportunities, engaging in environmentally sustainable practices, providing healthy and safe working conditions, being open to public accountability and reducing the number of middlemen from supplier to consumer.
Bicycles for Education
In Togo’s rural communities, only 20% of boys and 10% of girls ever complete secondary education. With no form of public transport, many of these children face an arduous, time-consuming and often dangerous ten-mile walk to school. With the additional pressure of home responsibilities, thousands of students – particularly girls – are forced to drop out of school long before graduating.
In 2004, Alaffia began collecting used bicycles in Washington and Oregon and donating them to Togo’s poorest communities. This simple yet effective scheme has had a sizeable impact on school drop-out rates – with 95% of Bicycles for Education recipients going on to graduate high school. So far, 9,000 bikes have been distributed to Togolese students in over 70 villages. Funded entirely by the sales of Alaffia’s products, the Bicycles for Education scheme is empowering Togo’s young people to lead their communities out of poverty and towards a brighter future.
The Gift of Sight
For thousands of visually impaired adults and children living in Togo, eyeglasses are a luxury they cannot afford. In poor communities, a pair of glasses can cost up to a third of the average annual income – money desperately needed for food, clothing and other basic needs.
With the help of numerous US retailers, Alaffia collects and donates used eyeglasses to their affiliate villages in Togo, employing an optometrist to fit and distribute them correctly. From visually impaired children struggling at school to the elderly suffering from failing vision, these eyeglasses have a transformative effect on the day-to-day lives of their recipients. To date, Alaffia has given the life-changing gift of sight to an amazing 28,018 adults and children throughout Togo.
Preserving Ancient Traditions
Perhaps most significant of all, Alaffia’s ethical practices are helping to preserve the traditional knowledge and age-old recipes that have existed in West Africa for generations. By embracing, not compromising, these traditional methods, Alaffia are using Togo’s indigenous culture and resources to lift its people out of poverty, build dignity and create a sustainable future free from hardship and suffering.
Alaffia’s success is proving to the world that a different kind of business is possible in Africa. Each time you buy from Alaffia, you aren’t just purchasing a gorgeous, natural skincare product; you are empowering impoverished communities, celebrating their traditions and supporting a brand that gives back far more than it takes from the world. When it comes to making real, positive change, Alaffia is leading the charge!
Have you tried Alaffia’s products? Check out their wide range of body butter, cleansers, sulphate-free soaps, haircare and gentle baby products at www.alaffia.com.
